Junior School Report

The Junior School team would like to congratulate our students, parents and families on their tremendous efforts throughout Term 3.

We acknowledge that at the moment many students and families are experiencing lockdown fatigue, and therefore we commend our students on their commitment to still trying to achieve their best despite the many hurdles that they are currently facing.

After what has been a challenging term, we would like to stress the importance of students getting a much needed rest and break over the school holidays. Please note that students are not expected to complete work over the school holidays. If any students are worried about outstanding assessment tasks, we encourage them to contact their classroom teacher.

Alternatively, the Junior School team is also committed to supporting student well-being and academic success, so students can also contact their Year Level Coordinator.

We wish all our staff, students, parents and families a safe and restful term holidays and hope that we can see you all back on-site in Term 4.

Knox Youth Summit

On Tuesday 7 September, 11 students from our school attended the annual Knox Youth Summit with many other schools in the local area over Zoom. The purpose of this event was to discuss our thoughts about the environment and mental health, and provide recommendations to the Knox City Council. The participants were provided with the opportunity to hear from a number of guest speakers who shared different strategies on how we can protect the environment and improve our mental health. For example; we learnt the impact that the environment can have on your mental health and thus the importance of spending time outside with nature every day.

Students were then given the opportunity to discuss our ideas on strategies that the Knox Council can implement to improve the environment and the mental health of our peers. One such proposal included the importance of educating people about the wide array of challenges that the younger generation are currently facing particularly during this time of lockdown. The students then presented their ideas to several members of the Knox City Council.

This initiative provided us with the opportunity to advocate on behalf of our peers and put forth our ideas to the Knox Councillors and other key staff in the area. We thoroughly enjoyed our time and appreciate all of the opportunities provided by the College to get involved in student voice initiatives.

Storm Pascua and Shaelah Caruana

Tutoring Support for the Junior School Students

In Term 3, the Junior School has been working tirelessly on ensuring that all our students are receiving adequate support during remote learning. One recent initiative that has been introduced is extra tutoring support classes for students who may benefit from some additional teacher support. This involves one to two WebEx sessions per week, where students can receive help from a teacher on their work, guidance on how best to organise themselves, or even a little bit of extra motivation.

If there are students who would benefit from this extra assistance and would like to participate in this support program, please contact Ms Emily Phibbs (Head of Junior School).

A big thank you to the following staff who are responsible for delivering this initiative:

Ms Ellen Sawyer, Mr Patrick Dempsey, Miss Kathleen Shirer, Ms Vicki Manioudakis, Mr Ron King, Mr Donovan Lawrence, Mr Hao Wang and Miss Maria Christoforou.

Junior School Team:

Mr Sam Eddy - Year 7 Coordinator

Ms Sylvia Wood - Year 8 Coordinator

Ms Su-Nhi Kim - Year 9 Coordinator

Ms Emily Phibbs - Head of Junior School